On Parents and Potential

So much depends on two people in rocking chairs on the front porch.

Yo Yo Ma was a cultivated cellist; a prodigy to be sure, but the inevitable product of his musical parents' efforts and their persistent attention. At 4, he would not be able to force himself to memorize two measures of bach a day without outside influence. No genius could do that. Each day his parents would probably remind, perhaps even force Yo Yo to practice the violin or cello or piano. He got better, and his talent and passion made him excellent, even prodigious. Now he is the best cellist in the world.

Sally could have been a champion runner. As a child, she beat all the boys in all the races at recess. She loved running, especially short distance. She was a little scared of running long distances, though. They took forever, and made her sides hurt. Her parents liked to sit on rocking chairs. Once, she went up to the front porch and asked her parents if she could join a track team. "Sure!" they said "why don't you find a team, and we'll sign you up." Of course, Sally never found the track team. At seven, she was too shy, too young, and had to much to do. Who could blame her? Sally continued to run for a while, but nobody really cared. A few people mentioned she'd be great for track, but it didn't matter. Those two people that mattered most, her parents, never really noticed. They were too busy with their own plans for Sally. They thought she'd make a good pianist, a good philosopher, maybe even good at rocking on chairs like they did, but not a good runner. They were too busy worrying about her health to see how much she liked running. They were too lazy to get out of their chairs to help. So Sally grew up and became just another person rocking on her chair, like her parents were. She never became the great runner she could be.

Sometimes I feel a little bit like Sally. But then I remind myself that if I really like something, I should do it regardless of how little my parents care about it. That's why I learned 5 clubs, and why I'm now learning 7 balls.

Won't Be Posting for a While

So, I won't be posting for a while, because I am in Rome, and thus most of my thoughts are associated with Rome. Check my Rome blog out at http://jugglinginrome.blogspot.com

Organization Freaks

Why do some people like to be organized so often?

Humans like to cluster things together. We are constantly doing this in our minds. We can see this in how we classify people, or even in how we remember things (when you type a phone number, you cluster it into several special sections like country code, area code, and actual phone number). Organizing is just another way of clustering stuff, really.

When we have a messy room, or messy code, all the elements in our object are mixed into one big mess. Organizing allows us to re-catagorize this mess, and break it up into smaller, more manageable parts. It allows us to re-cluster our environment.

Why do some people organize more often? I think this has to do with how we think. Perhaps people who really like organizing tend to cluster objects more. Or, perhaps they get anxious when things are not clustered because they are generally nervous. It's also possible that some people like to be efficient, and clustering allows us to access information faster. But what it all boils down to really is clustering. Almost all people prefer a clustered, categorized world; they like being organized. The question is whether they like it so much that they're willing to go through the effort of organizing.

Uninformed News

(Above: Ethiopia, in case you were wondering)

I have a few words to say about how we read news.

Today I read that some negotiation of some sort was being settled in Ethiopia. The reason I don't remember what exactly was going on was because I didn't finish the article. Half way through my reading, I realized that I didn't know where Ethiopia was. I quickly went on wiki and found out, and that got me thinking...

How often do we know where our news is coming from? We know what is happening, but often have no idea where this is happening. This is especially prevalent in America, where citizens are rarely taught about the geography of anywhere but New York and Disneyland. Why is this important? Well, when people have a concrete idea of the physical location of an event, this makes this event seem more realistic, and has a much stronger impact on a person. The more familiar one is with a location, the more important the news is for this person. You care a lot more about bomb attacks in your hometown than those in some fictional land called Lebanon. Letting people be aware of where news is from makes it more real, making people care about it more.

I have an idea for how someone might let people become more aware of where there news is from: you could write a program/service that takes news from some source, and then places thumbnails of this news in the country/city where this event is taking place. Basically, you'd have a map with a bunch of news thumbnails and headlines, which you could then click on and then read.

If designed well, this program would give people the where of news. It would provide a new way of reading news by location, while educating the user not only on global events, but also a bit on geography as well. Plus, it'd be kind of cool. So yeah, if somebody did/has done this, it'd be pretty awesome.

Why So Few Posts?

If you read this, you might be wondering why I haven't been posting much. That's because almost all of my posts have been in my Rome blog! These are thoughts mostly geared towards my getting ready for Rome, but still there's some cool stuff in there. Check it out here:
http://jugglinginrome.blogspot.com

I was juggling in the park today, and this guy asked me why I juggled. I couldn't think of anything except a cursory "Oh, it's just a hobby", but I thought of something better: it keeps me from watching TV. What I mean is, juggling is a way for me to relax, like TV is for most, only juggling could potentially earn me a pretty penny when I'm in trouble, but watching TV won't.

Google Open House

Yesterday I went to a Google Open House/Recruiting event. It was refreshing. I must say, I enjoyed having "empty" conversations with incredibly intelligent employees at Google for the sake of mingling. Because, the purpose of this event was not to have a deep conversation or build friendships, but rather to get your face known around Google. Since I was one of 3 girls in a room of about 60, I had an unfair advantage over the guys here. We had three talks, two about google maps, na done about Google analytics. Google analytics sounds like a fascinating service which I hope to put on this very site in the near future. Afterward, we mingled some more and ate more unappetising appetizers (the desserts, however, were phenomenal. You can't go wrong with lemon tarts and small chocolate glazed cakes), and it was time for the raffle. Some guys won google memorabilia, and two won Nintendo DS lights, and then the party was over. People kept milling around for a while, but eventually the party died down and I left with a nice little goodie back complete with Google pen, notepad, and shirt.

This was the first time I realized the power and purpose of talking about things you probably won't remember past the next day. Because you might not remember what you talked about, but you will remember who you talked with. And that's just as important.

Music

I have a few words to say about music:
It's amazing how small fluctuations in air pressure can move a person to tears. Or cause their heart to skip a beat as a tune pauses for a half second longer before plunging on. Music is a wonderful way to relax. It refreshes your head: a sauna of the mind. It can influence and enhance your writing and thoughts (I'm currently listening to the soulful, eccentric music of Kenna), and provides a nice buffer for when there's nothing to talk about. Sometimes, however, music can be harmful. When you're trying to program, do math, or trying to accomplish a very complex task, music can be very distracting. Your mind splits between the music and the task, and you don't accomplish what you wanted to do, nor do justice to the music. It amazes me how often people listen to music when they are doing complex tasks. I wonder how much they lose by listening to music. Perhaps they lose hours and hours of work. Or, maybe they lose nothing. It depends on if their minds are similar to mine.

Gum and Rain

I saw this quote on my pack of Dentyne gum today:

"Tall people may be taller, but the rain also hits them first"

I really don't understand why this quote is supposed to be inspirational, because even though the rain may hit the taller person first, it still hits the shorter person! In the end, both people are equally wet. Plus, the rain hits the taller person maybe a few milliseconds before the shorter person, which in human time really isn't a noticeable amount.

I wish Dentyne would put something more inspirational on their gum wrappers, like

"Every artist was once an amateur"(Emerson), or

"The power of imagination makes us infinite"(Muir).

Answer to Opposites

The two pictures I posted below represented youth and old age. And that's it.

Good Music

Listen to Kenna. His story is a good one. He rose to stardom within the music world; anyone who knew anything about music loved him. The only problem was that the general public didn't like him. For some reason, his music wasn't Britney Spears or Linkin Park enough to succeed. Listen to his music and try to find out. I personally think it might be because his music is difficult to classify: it's almost too quirky for most people to like. It doesn't quite appeal to the hip-hoppers, the rockers, or the alternative people. It's my kind of music, it doesn't really fit in anywhere. Maybe that's why I like it.

Opposites

I took these photos at the barbecue at my friends beach house on the 4th of July. Can you guess why I think these two pictures are opposites? I'll give you a hint: each one represents how I view something.

Toy Soldiers

It seems like so many of our legends and myths come
from really insightful observations about daily life.
And we keep making these same observations over and over.
Look! It's the modern day Sisyphus!

Step by step, heart to heart, left right left
We all fall down like toy soldiers
Bit by bit, torn apart, we never win
But the battle wages on for toy soldiers
~Eminem (Toy Soldiers)

Why Programming Can Be Addictive

Unlike many professional activities, programming often offers an immediate reward. For instance, you can spend a day writing a program and immediately have a tangible result as a testimony of your accomplishment. Not only does programming allow for creativity in what you make, but it also let's you choose how you accomplish what you want. Unlike many jobs, you often aren't restricted by some rigorous procedure of solving a problem, which most people find boring. And even the horrible moments of programming (debugging, understanding code, setting up computers and the like) actually add to the allure of programming, because these terrible moments make your accomplishments that much more important. In programming, you are given the freedom to approach a problem however you like, take on the challenges, and come out victorious (if you persist enough, that is). It is an immediate and very tangible form of goal-challenge-reward that so many of us enjoy. That's why programming is so addictive.

Sleeping in Seattle

I decided to read on the floor today instead of in my usual chair for a change. The book I was reading was interesting, but at times the technical jargon overwhelmed me and I felt myself slowing down and getting a bit sleepy. If I had known what tragedy awaited me on that carpet, I never would have laid down.

I had gotten to a particularly dreary portion of my book, when suddenly the sun came out, and began shining its warm, soothing rays onto my head. As I began slowing down, reading every other word, the sun would fill in my lapses with its soothing lullaby. I began thinking more of sleep and less about my book until the sun finally spoke to me, saying, "It's okay to take a nap, just a little daze, that's all. Naps are healthy! They rejuvinate your body and your mind." I must say, the suns testimonial was quite convincing, so I put my arms down and slowly drifted into sleep...

Apparently I napped for quite a while, because my mom managed not only to spot me, but to take her camera out and snap several pictures of me, without my even noticing!
I finally heard the camera's clicking, and slowly opened my eyes, to see what was up. But, the damage was already done. The photos were taken, and I could do nothing but take the photos with good humor. So I smiled and let my mom take one last picture. The End.

Socks!

You have a certain number of socks in your drawer. But, because you have no sense of style, the only colors your socks come in are red and black. If you draw two socks at random (without replacing them into the drawer...that'd just be silly) the probability of you getting two red socks is 1/2. What is the minimum number of socks you need for this to be true? For a harder version, what is the minimum number of socks you need for this to be true AND for there to be an even number of black socks?

A Puzzle

I was going to write about African child laborors working in copper mines, but instead I'll give you a puzzle.
I found it from a search on the word "google puzzle"

"Using the numbers 3, 3, 8, 8 (in any order), make a mathematical expression that equals 24. You can use only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (and parentheses), but in any order you wish. Note that you have to use all four numbers; otherwise 3 times 8 would be valid -- and that wouldn't be much of a puzzle, would it?"

There's also a nice solution where you can use any mathematical operators you know (and have been proven beyond a doubt).

A Puzzle

I was going to write about African child laborors working in copper mines, but instead I'll give you a puzzle.
I found it from a search on the word "google puzzle"

"Using the numbers 3, 3, 8, 8 (in any order), make a mathematical expression that equals 24. You can use only addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division (and parentheses), but in any order you wish. Note that you have to use all four numbers; otherwise 3 times 8 would be valid -- and that wouldn't be much of a puzzle, would it?"

There's also a nice solution where you can use any mathematical operators you know (and have been proven beyond a doubt).

Death of Zarqawi

Three Women and a Child Dead With Zarqawi
On Thursday CNN asked Americans what they thought about Zarqawis death. It seems like most people are happy, they are almost rejoicing now that this evil person is dead. But I don't think it was right to kill Zarqawi. Detain him, maybe, but not kill him. It doesn't seem like violence is the solution here. Revenge begets revenge, and this will only make Zarqawi's followers hate us more.

We couldn't even kill just Zarqawi. We had to kill a girl and three women along with him. We couldn't even do a clean job.

But that's beside my point. My point is that killing Zarqawi probably wasn't the best option we had given our information (his location, and presumably the means to get there). We're probably just fueling the conflict, not abating it.

How Ironic...

In case you can't read it, the top says "basic equations." I snapped that photo a few weeks back on my way to school. I was trying to make sense of Schrodinger's equations for a test I had that day, I believe.

A Note on Triviality

Something that is trivial is clear, easy and obvious. But triviality is relative. For example, Chinese people might think the Chinese language is trivial, but it is incredibly complicated for everyone else. They key here is to consider your audience (your frame of reference, in physics terms). If I tell you that juggling is easy and trivial, that won't encourage you much, will it? So even if juggling, or math, or whatever you do is easy for you, that's not what's important when communicating with people. What matters is how they view the topic at hand.

So the next time a student asks you "what's the sine of pi/2?" don't say "that's trivial!" Just calmly explain that it's one, and make sure to explain why.

Talk About A Demoralizing Teacher

So, today my physics teacher basically told me I suck at physics and should not pursue physics because I'm terrible at it. He said something along the lines of,

"If you were a doctor and you knew medicine like you knew physics, I wouldn't want to be your patient. Nobody would want to be your patient, because you'd be terrible"

Then he went on to say,
"You should only do what you're good at. If I were you I'd pick one thing, one goal, one thing I'm good at and strive for it."

I completely agree with both statements, (especially the latter), and think I will drop the physics major in favor of computer science (if I get in, that is).

But just in case you were wondering, telling your students that stuff they think is hard is "trivial" (as my professor pointed out, the integral of x^2 exp(-(x-3)^2) from neg. infinity to infinity is trivial) and telling them they suck at whatever it is your teaching isn't the best way to get a student excited about a topic. Even if the student sucks, don't tell them that. Telling someone they suck at something isn't going to make them like or learn it any better.

Solution to Post Problem

I think it's finally time to post the solution to the post problem I posted earlier. The trick is to simply flip the b post upside down. Now, we all know that the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line, and thus the shortest distance from a to b is a straight line. But since ab is a straight line, then theta 1 and theta 2 must be equal by the "opposite angle" theorem (I made it up...don't know what it's called). And that's all, folks!

Actually, another cool fact about this is that this actually proves why the angle of incidence always equals the angle of reflection!

Tests as a Way of Controlling People

I have an idea that I thought I'd throw out (to get some feedback). Sometimes it seems like tests are a way to control people, to basically manage what people do for a short period of time and make them all do one particular thing (take the test). Tests keep people studying, keep people in check lest they do something different. I'm not sure if this is at all valid, but it's a thought.

A Puzzle

Here's a problem that my dad and I came up with today:

n friends are drawing straws to see who will be the designated driver. Instead of drawing straws the usual way, however, a guy draws a straw, and if it's shorter than the rest the guy gets/has to be the designated driver. If it's not shorter than the rest, however, the guy puts the straw back into the pile. Is this a fair game? If not, which person should you be if you don't want to draw the shortest straw?

Language and Identity

One of my English students is writing a paper about the impact of Language on self-identity for immigrants who have travelled to America. Here's my take:
Language's on one's self identity is directly proportional to how much a person values language in the first place. The more one cares about and preserves his/her language, the more it affects his/her identity. I will use myself as an example to illustrate my point.

Because I care about my language, I make a special effort to remember and speak Russian at home. As a result, I view myself differently in different situations. In public (where I speak English) I view myself as American, wheras at home (where I speak Russian) I see myself as Ukranian. My language also affects how others view me. When others find out I speak Russian, they can no longer think of me as a pure American. Rather, I assume I become somewhat of a hybrid comunocapitalist SlavoAmerican.

On the other hand, a person who doesn't care about language cannot possibly identify himself based on his language simply because he doesn't care about it! This person may define himself as an American based on the flag he puts on his lawn, or the French fries he consumes, but not by language. Similarly, others will not identify this person by his language since that's not what makes him unique. People that don't care about language generally adopt the language of their surroundings, and learning that an Italian speaks Italian isn't exactly interesting. As a result, language does not affect the identity of a person who does not care about language.

So what does my epic tell us? That if you ever hear some English professor trying to stuff the idea that language and identity are "intimately interconnected", make sure to take this statement with a grain of salt.

My Next Program

Below is the logo for my next program, InkChat. The program allows you to chat with your friends not only with text, but also with a pen! Anyway, I'd really appreciate everyone's opinions about the logo. And don't say it's good because you know me, or don't want to offend me. I'd be offended if you couldn't be honest enough to say it needed some work. Because obviously it does. My main dilemma right now is the ink puddle, and the splotch under the "k" do I include those or not?

A Cool Problem

I saw this problem on the whiteboard of the EEP lounge today. So here it is: you're given two posts of height a and d, and you have a string connecting these two posts tied down to the ground at some point. Show that the minimum length of the string is given when theta1 = theta2. (Hint: you don't need to use calculus, trigonometry or even the pythagorean theorem!).

Quantum Mechanics in less than 50 words

There are 3 basic principles of elementary quantum mechanics, and here they are (in less than 50 words...numbers don't count as words):
1) Any object acts like a particle or wave, depending on how it's observed.
2) Energy of particle = 6.63 * 10^-34 * frequency of corresponding wave.
3) You cannot exactly know the position and speed of a particle at the same time. (uncertainty in speed) * (uncertainty in position) = .5 * 10^-34.

It is NOT true that there is a chance that you can walk through walls or somehow be at a different location (within what we can measure, anyway). You are way too big for quantum mechanics to have any real effect on you.

Now you can say that you know more quantum mechanics than most people do in the world! Give yourself a pat on the back.

This is What Studying Physics Feels Like:

While I was trying to figure out whether I should be using radians or degrees to figure out the intensity of a diffraction/interference pattern at 5 degrees from the center of a screen, this ant queen sort of stumbled into my room. It sort of wandered about for about 3 minutes on my physics textbook, so I took a picture. Apparently, this ant queen was very camera shy because shortly after I took a picture it started frantically running about, so I decided to stop torturing the poor thing and let it out. It's funny, but sometimes I feel just like the ant queen did while it was wandering around my physics textbook: stumbling upon equations and formulas, trying to tackle something of enourmous proportion. I especially feel that way now that I have to learn most of quantum mechanics in one day (I have a test the day after tommorow). Oh well, I at least have to give it a try...

In Honor of My Mother

Plaid Pants: $10
6 Juggling Clubs: $210
Boom Box: $30
Sunscreen: $3
Having a mom who made this picture possible: priceless.


Photo: A friend of mine and I performing today at the celebration of the Ravenna creek daylighting in the U. District.

Asking Questions in Class

There is a big email discussion going on amongst some students about whether a certain physics course is good. Here's what one person had to say about it:
"
>Honestly, it's not that
> bad. Just take it. Everyone who's cool and hardcore will think you're
> awesome. Besides, if you have any common sense it's easy. I do warn
> about some of the rather...talkative students with a penchant for asking
> questions without prior reflection.
"
There are two sentences that bug me about this evaluation. 1) "Everyone who's cool and hardcore with think you're awesome" and 2)"I do warn you about some of the rather...talkative students with a penchant for asking questions without prior reflection."
Today I'm going to adress the second sentence.
I'll say up front that yes, it is not a great idea to ask questions without thinking about whether they are worth asking first. These terrible, annoying people should shut their pieholes for once and think a little.
But this is usually not the problem. Far too often students will reflect and ponder their question so much that by the time they decide to ask the question, the lecture has already moved on. Usually they don't even reflect upon the right thing! Instead of wondering if their question has an obvious answer, the student wonders, "will this question make me look stupid? Will I look like I don't understand the material." The answer is yes. Since you have a question, you probably don't understand the material, and yes, you will look stupid. At least to those hardcore guys who have any common sense. But I assure you, these people are in the minority. And honestly, who cares if those hardcore people think you're stupid? You know you're not stupid. You know everyone is asking the same question, so just suck it up and ask already.
Thinking before you ask is important. But it's better to ask a little quickly than to not ask at all. Why? Because not asking questions destroys people's innovation and curiosity. Once you stop verbally asking questions, eventually you will stop thinking of questions, and just learn to accept your reality. I can assure you that most innovators (Einstein, Bohr, DeBroglie), the REALLY hardcore people, did ask questions. Lots of them. They were probably a little annoying, and sure, occasionally got so caught up in questioning that they may not have thought before asking.
I don't know about you, but I'm sort of glad that these people so vigorously questioned what they were learning. I certainly wouldn't be upset if sometimes they asked a question which to me seemed either ridiculous or obvious. How do you think great discoveries are made?
One finaly question: why are we paying these professors so much money if we could learn all the material equally well from a textbook? So that we can ask our professors questions, regardless of how stupid they may be.

Cool Fact

Did you guys know that you can fly from London to Rome for $1.50? Check it out! http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/
Of course, the seating is first come first serve, and the meals are not free (water costs about 5 dollars a bottle), but this is really a great way to save on air travel. Also, there's this airline called Eos on the other side of the financial spectrum which offers first class only service for only $2950 per round trip from JFK to London. http://www.airtravelgenius.com/ar/business_first_class_eos_airlines.htm
My dream trip from U.S. to Rome: Alaska to JFK, then from JFK to London (first class), and from London to Rome. Total fair: approximates $2800. Considering that most first class flights put you back $10,000 or more, I can certainly live with that.

5 Things Money Can't Buy, and a Puzzle

5 Things Money Can't Buy:
1. Intelligence. Meaning the ability to follow logical reasoning. Although you may be able to hire a tutor and train yourself, you cannot immediately buy your own intelligence because you have to practice in order to gain it (which nearly anybody can do).
2. Immortality (currently). By immortality I mean the ability to not physically die. As of now, we still have no way to make people immortal.
3. Money. No reasonable person would give you $10 for $5. Unless they're crazy, in which case it doesn't count.
4. Obedience. By obedience, I mean obedience to you (the person with all the money). If you try to buy a person's obedience, then they are not really being obedient to you, but to the money you give them. So they are not directly listening to you.
5. My expo marker. I'm not selling it.

A Puzzle (heard it in class today):
Bob knows he has one sibling other than himself, but does not know whether this sibling is a boy or girl. What is the probability that this sibling is a girl?

Hint: It's a trick quesiton.

The NIght Before a test.

Well, what can I say. It sucks. It sucks like no other. It's the worst feeling ever, waiting for a test to come, knowing you haven't prepared adequately enough. It really is miserable. You're tired, but you stay up regardless, just to study. The worst part is, nothing seeps into your head. It just goes in one ear and out the other. Sometimes if you're lucky you can cram a bit of information in for the test, but all that knowledge quickly drains away minutes later. Tests are unhealthy. They make you nervous, sick. And the more nervous you are, the worse you do. So you get more nervous before a test because you have to do extra well on this one. Which of course makes you fail worse. It's a vicious, never ending cycle, and I'm stuck right in the middle of it.

InkChat

So, for CSE 490 we have to write an application (which is a program, which is a thing that you stick on the computer and it does cool stuff, like email). I decided to make mine somewhat original and somewhat useful. So, I'm making a chatting client which in addition to typing on, you can write on as well. All chatting clients I know of use one way to communicate: keyboard. There's actually this new technology out there called Tablet PC which lets you write on the screen like you would on paper instead of typing for input. So, I'm going to use this new technology to enable users who have tablet PC to send written messages as well as typed ones. The beauty of this program is that people without tablet pc's can still read the ink because the ink is saved as an image.
This program will be particularly useful for science teachers or students who need to write complicated mathematical expressions while chatting, or for teenage girls who want to draw copious amounts of hearts around the name of the guy that they all have a crush on. Or, it can be used by grandmas who can't type, the list goes on indefinitely.
That's my idea anyway.

The Rouge Post

This is a post that doesn't belong here.
It is not useful, clever, insightful, or interesting.
Its soul purpose is to make the reader waste time.
It has been posted by a foreign entity.
With foreign fingers, foreign intentions, with a foreign mind.
It doesn't even make much sense!
It's completely out of place, awkwardly constructed, and incorrectly implemented.
This post is a rouge post.

I hope I haven't wasted too much of your time.

Computer Science vs. Computer Programming

Although some specialists may distinguish computer science and computer programming, most people think of these two areas as one and the same. They are tragically mistaken. Computer science is as different from computer programming as physics is from bridge building. In fact, this analogy holds completely. Computer programming is the engineering of computer science. It is the application of the ideas computer science explores. Let me give a concrete example. Any computer scientist will be able to tell you how to reverse a linked list, balance a binary tree, or write a huffman encoding algorithm. Programmers quickly forget how to balance a binary tree, because they don't need to. They have convenient methods that they can find in the MSDN library that will do this all for them. Computer programmers don't really need to know much about data structures or computers in general because they don't need to. All computer programmers need to know is how to find and use the methods they need in order to get things done. They need to find out which algorithms they need to apply, but don't need to understand them. Because of this, the kind of programming most people do doesn't actually require much thought. Rather, it requires specialized knowledge in highly specific areas. I find that incredibly dissapointing.

Fractal Program

I'm thinking of writing a program that draws and lets the user play around with fractals. I wonder if it's worthwhile...

Google Video

I usually consider Google Video to be a complete waste of time. But ocassionally, I'll stumble on rare videos I find incredibly compelling. This particular video is a work of art. The video seems to make sense out of complete chaos, and illustrates just how powerful 3d computer animation can be. This short rivals any pixar film I've ever seen. Check it out here .

Why Staying Home is Good

Having one day off from school can be a bit boring, but in addition to giving me time to catch up with my impossibly busy schedule, this day off lets me make whatever lunches I want. Today, I opted for chicken drumsticks with garlic bread and a fresh tomato salad.
The food tasted pretty good, but the best part of the meal was the preperation. I had plenty of fun making my simple (yet succulent) salad, and topping off my slices of French bread with the garlic butter I'd prepared just moments before was quite fun. It's nice to have a day off when you can construct an idea (in this case, it was a meal) in your head, and then make it happen.

It's a nice feeling.

The Coolest Light in Seattle

Today I had the great fortune to come across this beauty while wandering around Seattle. This little guy is located on the top of pier 66, about 40 feet away from the stairs. What makes this light so particularly fascinating? As always, it's all about the hat. The fountain-like wires that come out of this light's top complement the lights angular body to create a fusion of two prominent modern tastes. This light perfectly combines the concrete with the organic, balancing the natural bend of the wires with the light's sharp and permanent angles. And then of course there's the location. Pier 66 is arguably one of the best places in Seattle to view sunsets, and as a result attracts many people to this location. Even the lighting this light gives off is nice. It's not the ugly orange of most city lights, but rather a more modern bright white. Everything about this light spells creative, sophisticated, and modern. It is simply the coolest light in Seattle.

It's DONE

So, after 10 hours of painstakingly difficult work, I'm finally done enough with my project to turn it in. Finishing this project was a harrowing experience. I sat up from 9 pm until 7 am first commenting, then simply tweaking and prodding my project until I was happy with it. To be honest, I'm STILL not at all hapy with my result. Although my blogging client looks pretty nice and simple, it really doesn't have all the features it could and should have. First of all, I couldnt' get my file menu to display (even though I have all the proper code for a file menu...for some reason it just doesn't show up). The other thing I'm a little upset about is that I didn't get to implement the search function even though it would have been relatively easy to do for me because of the way I structures the program. That makes me angry since because of this my program will never actually be usuable since people will have to scroll for their friends. I really should have included a search function. Maybe I'll write one and stick it in even after the due date. So then, what took me so long? Well, it was mostly the design. In case you don't know, design takes forever. So does commenting. But the problem with design is it takes a long time to figure out what you're doing right or wrong. It takes time to pick out the perfece way for something to look. So I ended up going back and forth between options because I wanted my blog to look perfect. I sacrificed functionality for looks. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make, mostly because looks are really important when it comes to stuff people will be using. Also, this was more of a challenge for me since I was pretty sure how I'd pull the search off, but I was completely in the dark when it came to design. I dunno...I think my design turned out OK. I hope Gayle liked it.

I Went to Google and all I Got Was a Lousy T-Shirt...

Today I visited Google for lunch with a friend, and it was absolutely amazing. There were yoga balls, lava lamps, magic eight balls, various renditions of Google logos (even cooler than the Seattle logo), and colors. Colors everywhere. I seemed to have stepped into a second grader's dream-land...with grown ups.
And then there was the food. Aside from having a wide assortment of drinks and snacks, Google's cafeteria is first rate. The salad bar had a wide assortment of fresh vegetables. Not only did they have the usual baby corn, crutons and dressing, they also had greek olives, a rare find even in some 3 star restaraunts in Seattle. The main entree was first rate: okra stir fry (another rare find), sweet pork roasted with pineapple, and rice. I didn't try the soup or the rest of the entrees, but can't imagine them to be much worse. The real difference with Google's food is not just the assortment of dishes, but the quality of the meals themselves. Google's food leaves you full, but doesn't weigh you down. You don't get the unsettling rumbles in your stomache that indicate something down there doesn't agree with you. You don't get that unpleasant taste in your mouth afterwards that indicates a distasteful meal masked with heavy sauces, flavoring, and MSG. You just feel satisfied, and full.
Of course, there's more to Google than just food: Games! I had the pleasure of playing ping pong and air hockey with my friend (we managed to scare a few employees off with our almost frighteningly intense air hockey game), which was a lot of fun.
And then there's of course the countless numbers of really intelligent people surrounding you with their discussions of Pascal, Fortran, and Python. That's always fun, if you can understand it.
I left Google today a little dissapointed. Not because all I got was a lousy T-shirt, however (in fact, the T-shirt is really awesome! Especially since it's a women's shirt!), but because I knew I wouldn't be going back there again. Well, at least not until next week ;)

Computer "Science"

I'm planning to major in computer science. But is computer science really a science? What is science, exactly? The Free Dictionary defines science as :

a. The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.

Let's use this definition as a reference. When most people think of computer science, they think of computer programming, which is of course not a science. Computers and computer programming are products of engineering. Computers are engineered using principles from physics, and programs are engineered using a combination of data structures, algorithms, and programming languages. But what are things like data structures and algorithms but principles ("laws, so to speak") of the abstract information phenomenon? Linked lists are not direct products of computer hardware, but are rather structures defined by the idea of a node and a reference to another node. Computer science observes, identifies, describes, investigates and explains these abstract information phenomena just like any other science. It describes properties of algorithms (such as how fast it works), and tries to investigate new and faster ways to make these algorithms. The only difference is now the phenomenon is more abstract. Computer science doesn't investigate plants or animals which you can touch. Rather it investigates abstract ideas in our minds that we use to program our computers with. How can that not be a science?

Friday Adventure

Fridays are no fun without a nice little adventure, so today my friend and I decided to go explore Golden Gardens Park in Loyal Heights, Seattle. So we went to the library, figured out generally where we wanted to go (what busses we would take, and whether it was actually possible to get to the park by bus), and headed out.
Once we got on the bus, the ominous clouds above finally started to release some of their promised rain, so we decided to stop in a little Indian restaraunt to subdue our growing hunger and wait out the rain. We sat and ate the most delicious chicken I've ever tasted (called tandoori chicken) while the seattle sky poured its heart out. The rain stopped just as we finished, and we hurried to arrive at the park in time for sunset.
We made one pitstop at an interesting tree swing we found just off of the mian trail (pictured above). The steep hill at the top allowed you to propel yourself pretty far on the swing and get high above the trees, which was quite a bit of fun. Then we decided to take "The Road Not Taken" (a shortcut through the trees really) to get to the beach as quickly as possible. A few stumbles and an underground tunnel later, we arrived at the beach with little of a sunset to see. Since it was cloudy, we couldn't really see the colors a sunset promises. Instead, the clouds put on quite a dynamic display for us, which almost made up for the fact that there wasn't much of a sunset. We walked along the beach until we reached the fence that didn't block off anything, sat down for a bit, then headed back with our eyes closed. This was quite an adventure, since none of us could see, and often neither of us knew where the other one was. We could hardly take 30 steps without peeking to check if we were about to walk into water.
By now it was night, but even the beach wasn't all that dark due to the surrounding light pollution. The pollution was quite terrible. Only once were we in relative darkness, and even then it wasn't that dark.
We headed back to the U. District, drank some coffee at Coffee and Comics (a great coffee shop...the first nerdy coffee shop I've seen) and headed home. It was the perfect way to spend my Friday. So, the moral of this post: spend your Fridays exploring with friends. It's the best way to forget about your troubles and relax.

I'm Famous!

Look everybody, I'm famous!
http://www.uwnews.org/uweek/uweekindex.asp
Yes, that's me and my friend getting ready to do two 3 up 180s into back to back passing. That's why we look so concentrated.

Also, I've decided to do a "my day in pictures" journal entry on flickr. Check it out.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/julenka/sets/72057594106702271/

Why I Haven't Posted Much

I haven't been posting much recently. That picture is why. I've been spending most of my time designing and writing a blogging client for my CSE 490 class. Why is this hard? Well, because accessing databases is incredibly complex, and making this complex process user-friendly is even harder. Right now my blog looks like a blank slate with a little logo and some random text. Not exactly pretty, or user friendly. Oh well. That's for next week. About 50 things happened to me since I've blogged, all of which I'd like to write about but don't have time. Maybe I'll get to them all some day. Here they are:
Interviewed for Microsoft.
Got an offer for doing full time summer reserach with Tablet PC.
Interviewed and got into the Honors in Rome Program
Ran for an hour
Got 100 catches of 5 clubs
Got a guitar

I think I've exceeded my events quota for the entire month. Hopefully nothing will happen to me in the near future so that I can catch up on all these events. Meanwhile, I've got a test to study for. So, I'm off.

The Quad Is Blooming!

Since I spend most of my time cooped up in my office, in class, or in the lab, the most of spring that I ever get to see is when the cherry trees blossom in the quad. They put on quite a spectacle, and university students flock to enjoy the beautiful weather and atmosphere.

Juggling in the Quad

Yesterday the Jugglers at UW had a spectacular showing in the Quad. During peak juggling hour, we had about 15 jugglers passing, juggling solo, learning to juggle, or spinning poi. It was a tantalizing display of objects of all different types and color flying around in the air on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon. We had some photographers taking photos (one from our club, one from the daily, another from University Week), so my friend came up with the brilliant idea of gathering the entire club either onto or near one of the blooming trees in the quad. So there we were..15 jugglers juggling balls, clubs, and spinning poi around a tree in the quad. It was quite a display.

Relationship Problems

I wonder how many people will read this, or will want to read this, based on the title. If many people could see this title, I bet you a lot of people would read the entry. Why? Because for some reason, other people's problems interest us. Especially if they are social.

I think this partially has to do with the fact that we like to feel good about ourselves: if we know someone is having problems, and we arent, we feel good that we are better off than someone else. In the worst case, we can feel that we aren't the only person with problems in the world.

But mostly, I think it's just because we want to read about an interesting story that often has something to do with sex, courting, or drama, and want to be able say, "Ha! My life is only as bad as or perhaps even better than yours!" For some reason, that makes us feel good.

The Burke Gilman at Night

At 9:00 p.m. Friday night, a time when most college students are partying hard at the nearest frat house, my friends and I were wandering around the neighborhoods around Sand Point. As we walked along, we decided to take a break from the lights and clamor of the urban neighborhood and take a walk along the Burke-Gilman. So we slowly slipped into the darkness. The spiny trees enveloped us as we walked without moving towards the light on the horizon. It was so dark we could hardly see where we were going. We stayed on the trail by touch alone, our feet telling us when we had clearly stepped off the walkway. The trees protected us from any light or sound from the surrounding city.

Yet this protection was almost terrifying. We were grateful that we were not walking alone. At one point, an approaching light from a biker brought up images of invisible murderers hiding behind lights so that we couldn't see them. Of course, the biker would quickly pass and send us once agian into darkess.

After passing under a bridge, we finally reached the stairway back to the light. As we walked upwards, it got brighter and brighter until we were finally engulfed in that sea of unpleasant orangish yellow and it was back to business as usual.

For those of you who don't know what the Burke Gilman trail is, visit this webpage:
http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/BurkeGilman/bgtrail.htm

CSE 490

The course is two credits, and is not graded. However, with 4 full-scale GUI projects and an entire new language to learn, it promises to be one of the most difficult. At least there aren't going to be any tests. Plus, our teacher is pretty cool. She works at Google, and likes to talk very fast. Here is her website: http://www.glaak.com

Also, if you program and do not have Visual Studio. Get it.

A Quote

"There is no sin except stupidity"
Oscar Wilde

Before I explain this quote, let me first define 'sin' and 'stupidity' for my purposes so that you, kind reader, and I may be on the same page. Although it formally indicates 'the lack of conformity to the will of god', sin is by and large considered to be an action which is generally looked down upon in society. This is most often because it in the either hurts the sinner, or persons of value around the sinner. For example, gluttony harms not only the sinner (by making them unhealthy), but also the people around the sinner who could benefit by the unnecessary food the sinner consumed. Similarly, stupidity is partially defined on wikipedia as "unwitting self-destruction, the ability to act against one's best wishes." Since acting in the interest of others also benefits oneself, we can extend this definition to state that stupidity is also acting against the well-being of others.

Notice how similar these two definitions are. A sin, just like stupidity is an action that causes self harm and acts against the wishes of others. In fact, the whole definition of stupidity encompasses the definition of sin. So, logically there is no sin that cannot be accredited to stupidity. Intuitively this is clear: any sinful action is of course stupid (for example, betraying your best friend is stupid because it harms you emotionally). Just think: would God really want you to do something stupid? If not, then any stupid action is a sin, and every sin is a stupid action.

Since these two definitions are so similar and encompass each other, the statement, "there is no sin except stupidity" is more general and also far more powerful than all the bible's listings of sins because it concisely describes any sin possible.

That's what I think, anyway.

Easy Puzzle

I heard this one in my computer science 321 class:
4 people want to cross a bridge at night, but they only have one flashlight. The bridge can only hold two people at once, and in order to cross the a person must have a flashlight, or be walking next to someone who does. The four people can cross the bridge in 1, 2, 5, and 10 minutes. If a 10 minute person walks with a 1 minute person, the trip takes 10 minutes. Can all four people cross in 17 minutes?

Things to Look Forward to in Spring Quarter

Spring Break is far too short. Five days of complete relaxation and a Whistler trip ago I was sitting in my room studying for what seemed to be endless exams. Hardly a heart beat later I am again in the same room on the doorstep of yet another quarter. Well, I have no time to complain because before I know it, I'll be sitting in stuffy old lecture hall listening to my physics teacher make mistakes.
Speaking of which, here are a few things to look forward to:
1. Correcting my physics teacher's mistakes on the midterms and final.
2. Writing programs for my CSE 490 class.
3. The blossoms in the quad.
4. CSE 321 (Jonathan's in my class! We should have lots of fun.)
5. Taking a math class again.
6. Dinner with Nate and Alex.
7. Pho on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
8. Learning something every day.
9. NOT lazing around.
10. Doing research.

Another quarter awaits one sunrise away. I better go pack.

otolaryngology

In case you didn't know:
Otolaryngology is the branch of medicine that deals with the ears, nose and throat.
An interesting word, if you can pronounce it.

Writing for the Sake of Writing?

Don't you hate those one line posts that are completely pointless? Next time you see one, ask the poster to not waste his/her time writing such a useless post.

Whistler

For those of you who have never been to Whistler, I have two things to share.
1. The Whistler/Blackcomb area is HUGE. To put it in perspective, it takes about 45 minutes to get up one of the mountains on a high speed chair. You have to take three chairs in order to get to the top of blackcomb, and when you do, you can go down any side of the mountain. I spent two days there, and didn't uncover one twentieth of what was there.
2. The Whistler village area is like a very expensive shopping mall complete with expensive shops and little dogs. I had the pleasure of visiting every one of those little shops in whistler when I was following Rohan (our host) around during his shopping excursion.

Don't go to Whistler for the shops. You can just go to any mall for that. Go to Whistler for the mountain. There isn't another one like it.

Photos:
http://students.washington.edu/julenka/Whistler

Birthdays

It is my birthday tommorow. I remember when my birthday was the most important day of the year. I'd stay up late, anxiously awaiting that would signify that I was officially one year older. In the morning, I would eagerly open the presents my parents lined up around my room. Later that evening, we would celebrate with a huge party with a homemade dinner and my favorite strawberry cake.

Nowadays, I hardly even remember my birthday. I stay up the night before chatting or reading, not in anticipation. My birthday is usually on or one day after finals. I look forward to it more as the day after finals, not the day I was born. One year doesn't seem all that much when you're 16, and by that time you don't want to get older anyway. I don't get presents anymore on my birthday. They usually come later, and I don't want much anyway. Instead of a large party, I just go to a nice restaraunt with my parents, if I'm even with my parents.

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis.

(Times change, and we change in them).

Before The Physics Test...

Yet again, I have a physics test tommorow. This final has been unbelievably difficult to study for. First, because the new topics we've covered are very formulaic, and require much computation. Second, we pretty much need to study for all of electromagnetism, which is a lot. Third, studying for physics is the last thing I want to do when the sun is out and the mountains beg to be skied on. Studying for physics this quarter was literally painful. My head hurts from thinking so much. What'll be even worse is the dismal results I get, regardless of how much I studied.

Meta Test

With all these finals on my mind, I've been thinking of a sort of meta-test I'd like to create: a test that tests your ability to take tests!

The test's ultimate goal is to determine whether you underperform or overperform on tests. What makes this test difficult is it must be very personalized. That is, geared toward a person's ability level. To avoid this, I'm hoping to test in an area so removed from any possible previous knowledge that it would purely examine your reasoning in coming up with solutions.

The test would examine cases when you are either unsure of, or do not know the answer to a question.

Possible ways of Measuring ability to take tests:
1. How well you can eliminate choices.
2. Your ability to make educated guesses based on what you think a person would put as the answer.
3. How quickly you answer questions.
4. Whether you second guess yourself.
5. How much time you spend making difficult choices.

The concept is still in its very early stages. If anyone has any links to references about meta-tests, please send me the URL (either comment, or email).
Thanks.

Things I've gotten used to...

10 Things I've gotten used to:
1. Staying up until midnight either juggling or chatting or (occasionally) doing homework.
2. Getting a maximum of 7 hours of sleep (result of 1.)
3. Visiting google news, reading the New Yorker.
4. Studying for 3-6 hours a night without even noticing it.
5. Correcting my physics professor's mistakes on the exam.
6. Riding the metro bus every day.
7. The smelly, dirty, filthy, often unpleasant EEP lounge (where a bunch of "Washington's brightest" hang out).
8. Pho, teriyaki, pizza.
9. Using degrees instead of radians.
10. Skipping parts of texts I don't understand.

#10 bothers me the most. This is mostly a result of physics--there's just so much I need to learn that I don't have time to pore over and understand everything.

Solution to Weights Problem (Finally!)

A while back I posted an interesting problem:

A genie walks up to you and says, "Hey you, can you help me figure out which of my magic lamps is fake? I have 12 here, and know 11 of them are genuine. The one fake lamp doesn't weigh the same as the other 11 lamps, but I don't know whether it's heavier or lighter. I also have this pair of scales, but they're weird. They can lean either to one side or the other, or stay even, but that's it. And they can only weigh stuff 3 times. Can you devise a method to figure out which lamp is the odd one out using just three measurements? Hurry, Survivor's on, and I only have a few minutes to spare.

I finally put up the solution. You can view it here.

It's quite a long solution, and I put a lot of effort into it, so you should check it out.

Labs

Labs are so much easier alone. I finished a lab about 1.5 times fater by myself than I would have with a partner. Another sign that I'm getting increasingly anti-social.

Wow, what a terrible week

So, I just got a 76% on my physics exam. This is very bad. Why is it bad? Because it means that I missed at least 2 key concepts in electromagnetism. The worst part is, I came out of that test knowing that I applied my understanding of physics to the best of my abilities. I didn't panic, took my time, and thought pretty clearly through each problem. And I came out with a 76%. What does this mean? It means some of the fundamental concepts that I base my entire understanding of physics on is wrong.
That's the worst feeling ever. It doesn't matter that I did OK relative to the rest of the class. I'd be just as sad if I got a 76% and was the best in the class, and would be overjoyed if I got a 95% on an exam, even if 95% was average.
What's even worse is that I studied for this test pretty seriously for two days. By seriously I mean I didn't do anything but study. I talked to nobody, didn't chat, didn't do any other homework. For two days, I devoted my entire life to physics. And this is my payback. A slightly above-average score. What a bitter result.
Nevertheless, I look forward to finding out exactly what I did wrong, and perhaps fixing all the mistakes that my physics professor inevitably made on his exam key.

The Woes Of Juggling, Continued

So, we had our weekly juggling meeting today. The place where we usually meet was taken, so we decided to go in the physics building instead. They kicked us out after 30 minutes. So we went to juggle in Kane Hall (an enourmous lecture hall). The janitor less-than-graciously asked us to leave after just 15 minutes. So, we headed over to the Quad (open grassy area with lots of pretty trees). We didn't get kicked out, but it was muddly, cold, windy and wet.

The Woes Of Juggling

40 minutes spent working on a trick that I should be able to do with my eyes closed.

30 minutes trying to finish a five club practice that I could get last week.

Dry hands, bruised thumbs, and a sea of frustration washing over me with every collision.

An entire day wasted because I couldn't quite get the tricks right.

These are the woes of juggling.

This is just to say...

I have eaten
the pie
that was in
the refrigerator

and which
topped off
the perfect
weekend

Forgive me
it was delicious
so tart
and so creamy


Forgive me William Carlos Williams, I have just butchered your poem.

This is why physics is bad.

It's 11:30 at night, I have to go to bed in order to wake up reasonably sane tommorow, and I still feel as if I know no physics. What really worries me is that the professor will spring a question on us that I hadn't thought about. In fact, this is pretty much a given, since it always happens. I always feel terrible going into physics tests. I should just stop worrying and live up to the carefree ideals that I keep telling everyone else to live up to. Okay, now I must drag myself off to bed and face the physics test tommorow.

Woes of Physics

Studying for physics is an extremely stressful process. There is a lot of material which you have to learn quite thoroughly in a short amount of time because you obviously couldn't understand anything in lecture or homework. The amount of equations you have to derive, and techniques you have to learn is mind-boggling. This is probably why most people do poorly on physics tests: there's just so much you need to learn, and so little time. Most people simply end up plugging and chugging. Of course, this works wonders on tests, but I refuse to do this actively. So, I guess I'll have to continue suffering, trying to learn most of electrodynamics in the 4 hours of study time I have tommorow.

I'm not sure who to blame: myself for not learning the material well enough, or my teachers for teaching it very poorly (after all, if I am not the only one struggling in this class). I think I'll blame it on myself.

On Procrastination...

I think I know why people procrastinate. It's all about hope. When you procrastinate, you put a task off for a later time or date, when you can hope that it will be done. Procrastinating is just a fancy way of forgetting your troubles for a while. Why are we so prone to procrastination? Because we like to hope. Because when you have hope, everything sort of feels all right.
Blogs are an excellent source of procrastination.
Procrastination can be a good indication of your distractability.
It requires tremendous willpower to stop procrastinating.
Usually when you procrastinate, it's because you really don't want to do something. The question is, is it a good idea to actually do what you don't want to do?
I'll leave it at that.

Chatting

Chatting is a waste of time. I don't know why I get sucked into it so often. So is talking on the phone. It disrupts physics, math, english, computer science, research, juggling--everything. What a waste.

Random.

The swim trunks don't belong on your head, silly.

Mickey mouse cannot climb cliffs, and people are not perfect.

Blue duckies belong on neptune, Uranus is a planet.

Ski pass my ass.

The cell phone is a waste of time unless used thoughtfully.

Emotion is the crux of human relations. So many actions are based off of it.

A grade is a number that means more to some than food, sleep or well-being. A number is more important than well being.

Lava lamps, like emo, like swing, like uggs, are a fad.

Do a freudian analysis of that.

What I learned today, and yesterday

Funny words:
schizoid (disorder)- a personality disorder characterized by a lack of a desire for social relationships.
sexagesimal- fractions employed by Babylonians around 1320 A.D., based on dividing units into 60 parts. This is how the minute and hour were eventually divided into 60 parts.

Interesting Principles:
The gradient of a scalar field maps the direction of greatest increase of the scalar field as a vector field.
The divergence of a field is, in physics terms, the rate of change of the amount of "stuff" per unit volume per unit time. SO, the volume integral of the divergence is the rate of change of mass going through a particular volume per unit time. It is related to flux by Gauss's theorem, which states that the total flux over a closed surface is equal to the total divergence of the flux over the volume the surface encloses.

These are actually really hard to understand, and it took me FOREVER to get them, which kind of makes me frustrated because now I have only a day to understand all of the electromagnetism which feynman presents (like 5 chapters, each of which take an hour = impossible).

Fun Facts:
Ice cream made with liquid nitrogen cooling is tasty apparently.
If you run an AC current through a pickle, it glows.
There are 5 different tastes we have: sweet, sour, bitter, satly, and umami. Umami is a flavor commonly used in the East, and is the taste of MSG. Tomatoes and parmesean cheese also have umami, however. I characterize it as a "meaty" flavor.

Cool Quote:
"When it comes to procrastinating, I do it right away!" Dunno who said that...but it's clever.

The UW Campus at night...

The University of Washington campus at night is truly a wonderful place. It's really nice being able to wander such a vast campus which just 5 hours ago was teeming with live, and is now almost completely empty. Highlights include Greek Row (the houses there are HUGE, and it's fun to peek in to see what those frat guys and sorority girls are doing). The Computer Science building, and the Physics building.
My favorite place was by far the physics building. You can only get inside if you have a special key, and once there, it's like you own the place. There are comfy couches, computers galore, and all the soda you could possibly drink there. Not to mention all the books and empty hallways you can wander.
Basically, everyone needs to walk around their campus at night. Or, if they don't live in a university, everyone needs to go out one night and just wander. You'd be amazed at what you'll discover.

Why do we have 20 Dollar Bills?

It just occured to me...why do we have 20 dollar bills? I mean, I understand 1, and 5, and 10, but then why 20? And why is the next bill a 50? These numbers are all multiples of 5, in this order: 0, 1, 2, 4, 10...Perhaps the treasury knew that they wanted 10 and 50 dollar bills, and wanted something in between. But that would be a 30 dollar bill. Or, if they wanted a bill between 0 and 50, they'd need a 25 dollar bill. However, a 25 dollar bill would be difficult to give change from, since 25 is harder to subtract from than 20. But in that case, then why do people create such obscurely priced merchandise?

My pizza cost $2.40.

Curiosity: I was on the phone so long yesterday that my hand was cramped up in the phone-holding position (hand up to ear).

The Harvard Grad Student

So.
There's a Harvard Grad student downstairs. She's working on her PhD in math, and already has her postdocs lined up for 3 years. All at Harvard. She comes off as very quiet, and very intelligent. She's working on some sort of very complicated Algebra.

We had dinner, and I was surprised at how passive and ordinary she seemed. I mean, you'd think people from Harvard are like this elite class of super-humans or something. I mean, they're at Harvard! But no, they're just ordinary people. Smart, yes. But in other respects, pretty darn ordinary.

I was amazed at how little she had to say about Harvard other than her math students were unenthusiastic about math. You'd think that Harvard would be a school of privledged elites who love all subjects. Not so. The school is just as diverse as the UW. Okay, maybe the UW is quite a bit more diverse. But the two are both intelligence and interest spectrums. Both have their outliers, and that bell-shaped middle.

And as always, half of the class is always below average.

Still, I'd like to go to Harvard, or an equally renowned school simply because then I'd be surrounded by really smart people. And I always enjoy that.

How I Juggle for 5 Hours

So, a friend asked me today how I manage to juggle for 5 hours a day. Here's my answer:

I just do. Meaning, I go and juggle, and I get so immersed in my juggling that pretty soon it's been 3 or 4 hours...occasionally even 5. Juggling isn't really a meditation, and it doesn't allow the mind to wander. But, it requires an intense focus. You have to think only about juggling when you're juggling. Otherwise you'll drop. The minute you worry about other things, like whether you will drop, for instance, you do. And it always keeps teasing you with more tricks to learn. When I get into one of my long sessions, what happens is every time I learn or practice a trick, someone shows me another one. So, I of course have to learn it. The end of a juggling session usually isn't due to a lack of tricks to learn, but rather due to my sheer exhaustion, thirst and hunger.

Perhaps the reason I can juggle for 5 hours is because although it's physically demanding, you don't get as tired as fast. Or, at least I don't notice it any more now that I've been juggling for a while. I juggled again for 3.5 hours today. 2 hours into the practice I thought maybe we'd done an hour tops. Time flies when you're juggling. It's a very different, very focused world. Juggling is quite an experience.

When you think juggling, think hiking. Think reading in a quite library. Think walking alone on the beach. Think being completely immersed in your little world--focused, and alone.

On a similar note, recent juggling progress:
5 clubs, 56 catches
4 club shoulder throws
juggled 5 balls for several minutes
Learned a bunch of other stuff you'll have to see for yourself. Check out my videos (most are not all that up to date) at
http://students.washington.edu/uwjuggle/videos.htm

The Weekend In Review

Saturday:
Computer Science Homework
Made Phad Thai
Juggled for a total of about 5 hours.
Chatted. Chatted way to long. But for a friend, it was worth it.

Sunday:
Physics Homework
Wrote many emails, including one apologizing to Sensei Junko about why I did not go to the karate tournament today.
Figured out classes for next quarter:

CSE 321 (if I can get in, if not, then Math 310: Problem Solving) : Discrete Structures
Phys 123 (H) : Honors Physics
Math 324: Multivariable calculus (it's about time!)
Phys 225: Modern physics
either Stat 390: Probability and Statistics in Engineering and Science
OR Research credit for the explosives research I'm doing now

Worked on Honors in Rome Application
Visited a family friend who'd recently broken her pelvis and hip in 3 places
Edited and updated juggling website
Juggled
Chatted. Again, for far too long.

And that's about it. This is what a light weekend is like for me.

Answer To Puzzle 1, Puzzle 2

You can view the program that prints itself online at:

http://students.washington.edu/julenka/puzzles

And now, for a new problem:

A genie walks up to you and says, "Hey you, can you help me figure out which of my magic lamps is fake? I have 12 here, and know 11 of them are genuine. The one fake lamp doesn't way the same as the other 11 lamps, but I don't know whether it's heavier or lighter. I also have this pair of scales, but they're weird. They can lean either to one side or the other, or stay even, but that's it. And they can only weigh stuff 3 times. Can you devise a method to figure out which lamp is the odd one out using just three measurements? Hurry, Survivor's on, and I only have a few minutes to spare.

What Undergraduate Reserach is Like

I’m typing this in a 6 x 8 foot cell, half of which is taken up by a noisy fume hood. I’m sitting on a small black stool (the kind with no back), with my laptop on my lap. To the left of me is that giant noisy fume hood, with tons of chemicals, heating plates, and experiments inside. In front of me is a giant tank of nitrogen the size of a 5^th grader, as well as a very complicated-looking microscope. To the right, there’s a little desk cluttered with fancy gadgets and tools. There are a few lab coats lying around, and a vacuum cleaner as well. The entire room is orange because of these smelly plastic curtains they put in the room. Every 4 minutes or so a little window pops up on my screen, indicating I’ve completed yet another data run. So, I reset my experiment, put my data in an excel chart, and start all over. This experiment manages to keep my happily half busy like this for several hours each day. So that’s what research is all about.

CS Agony

I have a ridiculously hard Computer Science midterm tommorow. We are given 50 minutes to solve 6 problems, 2 of which are straightforward computations (but require quite a bit of time, one is a page long fill-in the blanks sheet which requires meticulous analysis of code). The other 4 are harder programming problem. We have to write a program which does a certain task on the spot.
Here's an example of an array problem from the test:


Write a method longestSortedSequence that returns the length of the longest sorted sequence within a list of integers. For example, if a variable called list stores the following sequence of values:
(1,3,5,2,9,7,-3,0,42,308,17)
then the call
list.longestSortedSequence();

would return the value 4 because it is the length of the longest sorted sequence. If the list is empty, your method should return 0. Notice that for a non-empty list the method will always return a value of at least 1 because any individual element constitutes a sorted sequence.

Now, this is pretty hard on its own, but imagine having to do 4 of these with about 35 minutes left on the clock. You basically have only one try to get it right. Oh, and did I mention that an 80% is equivalent to a 2.6? Talk about pressure.

So far, I've gotten about 50% on my physics midterm. We'll see if this test score gets better as my results come back.

First Puzzle

This is a programming puzzle:

Write a program that writes itself. That is, the output of the program is whatever the code of the program looks like. So, if the code of the program looks like this:

if (this was a real language){
it would not be comprehensible;
}

Then, if it wrote itself, it woudl output:

if (this was a real language){
it would not be comprehensible;
}

I Had This Impulse...

To start a blog. For my first entry, I will lay out my terms:

This Blog's 10 Commandments:

1. No chronicling of daily life in the form, "First, I did this, then I did that..."
2. Only mention aspects of daily life if they are unique, or interesting.
3. Attempt to illustrate what life is like as a juggler, physics and computer science student, english teacher, and karate student.
4. Don't offend anyone.
5. Don't reveal overly personal information.
6. Try to give puzzles and paradoxes on every post.
7. Make rules.
8. Follow them.
9. Don't write what isn't worth writing.
10. The beauty of blogging is you have time to express what you want--so think before you type!

Okay there they are. I think I will post these on my profile somewhere so they don't get lost.